Video shows torture of prisoners overseen by Saddam’s half brother

BAGHDAD — A graphic video to be broadcast today shows Saddam Hussein’s half brother, ousted Interior Minister Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, exhorting his police officers as they beat and torture prisoners.

“Go on, go on,” Hasan tells his khaki-clad ministry police as they repeatedly slash prisoners with sticks, electric cables and metal bars at a Baghdad detention center. The police kick the prisoners again and again.

At one point, one of Hasan’s own security guards is beaten with wooden poles, sticks and cables after pleading for mercy.

Hasan was captured April 13 as he apparently attempted to flee to Syria and is being held in a coalition prison for “high-value detainees.”

A Ba’ath Party official who has the same mother as Saddam and is one of Saddam’s three half brothers, Hasan was the five of spades in the deck of 55 cards distributed to coalition soldiers in the search for the most-wanted Iraqi officials.

A reporter for The Washington Times has seen the video pictures in their entirety. Excerpts will be shown today by the Al Arabiya satellite television channel, which obtained them from an undisclosed Iraqi source.

The gruesome pictures, with testimony by one of the beaten prisoners, are expected to be of value in building a criminal prosecution against Hasan.

The U.S.-led coalition or its successor will seek to prove that the interior minister ran a systematic reign of terror, coalition legal experts said.

The video shows prisoners held in a small fenced courtyard. They at first move from side to side as blows rain down.

Then, as their bodies and heads become increasingly bloodied and their flesh torn, most topple to the ground and curl up in a fetal position.

As some try to stagger to their feet when blows are being inflicted on other prisoners, the police officers return, knocking them down again until many lie helplessly on their backs, motionless and apparently unconscious.

Each of two VHS tapes, in perfect color, runs continuously for about an hour. They appear to have been recorded professionally.

At one point, the interior minister becomes angry that a car apparently belonging to Uday Hussein, elder son of Saddam, gets precedence over his own vehicle in entering a security area.

One of two guards at the gate begs forgiveness from Hasan, pleading: “Sir, I did not realize that you were with Mr. Uday. … I didn’t realize. Please, please, in the name of Saddam Hussein, please.”

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